The Secretary of State for Planning and Nature Conservation, Célia Ramos, has been to visit beach infrastructure work on Fuseta Island and at Cavacos beach where a new swimming area has been made with sand banked up for the benefit of beachgoers.
The work has been carried out by the reviled institution, Polis Litoral Ria Formosa, whose claim to infamy has been its energetic involvement in demolishing Ria Formosa island properties.
The Polis Ria Formosa Society, due to be wound up at the end of the year has signed two work contracts to improve the Ria Formosa area, rather than demolishing yet more island homes.
Dune reinforcement on the islands of Armona and Tavira is to go ahead, as is work to improve the village of Culatra on the eponymous island.
The Ria Formosa island homes demolition battle has reignited, with cries of foul play from island resident groups as a further 22 properties have been scheduled for destruction. This is despite the minister’s promise last April that nothing more would be done until a review in three years time.
The previously protected homes in the villages of Farol and Hangares are back in the firing line for a new wave of demolitions authorised by Polis Litoral Ria Formosa - with the full knowledge of the ministry.
The fight continues to clean up the Ria Formosa lagoon, one of Portugal’s natural parks, with questions submitted in parliament by opposition MPs on protection measures for the sea cucumber.
Teresa Caeiro, Patrícia Fonseca, Ilda Araújo Novo, Hélder Amaral and Álvaro Castello-Branco questioned the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of the Sea and recommended that the list of protected species includes the sea cucumber.
Opposition MPs Teresa Caeiro, Patrícia Fonseca, Álvaro Castello-Branco and João Rebelo have questioned the Government on news reports of the danger of the Ria Formosa seahorse population dying out, considered until recently the largest population of seahorses in the world .
In two questions sent to the Minister of the Environment and to the Minister of National Defence, the MPs demanded to know what enforcement actions have been carried out and how often the Maritime Police have been nabbing illegal seahorse fishermen.
For those remaining unconvinced that the Algarve's protected Ria Formosa lagoon remains a convenient dumping zone for raw sewage, a video posted on Facebook records events at the outflow pipe from the Waste Water Treatment Plant to the west of Olhão, proof that large scale dumping continues despite official denial that there is a problem.
The December 28th, 2017, video clip shows thousands of cubic metres of sewage being dumped into water where the famous Ria Formosa shellfish carefully are tended and harvested in bivalve production zone Olhão 3. Click HERE
The unveiling of a monument marking 100 years since WWI and the role played by those in the now sleepy settlement of Hangares on the Ria Formosa island of Culatra, went ahead on August 30th but with an unexpected and not universally welcomed announcement which has been slammed by the environmental organisation, Almargem.
The event aimed to 'value the collective memory and celebrate the achievement of peace and democracy,' but ended up being used by the Navy to announce the conversion of the derelict military area into a fully equipped training base for Portugal's Marines, right in the middle of the Ria Formosa Natural Park which is a Natura 2000 area.
The court in Faro has decided to revoke an initial decision and proceed with the demolition of 15 illegal houses on the Ria Formosa settlements of Farol and Hangares. The court order is set to be enforced as soon as the summer holiday season is over, bring tension, anger and the prospect of yet more legal fees for property owners.
The Judicial Court of Faro has ordered the "evacuation and demolition" of what it calls "clandestine summer houses" in the Ria Formosa area.
